7H 



Trials of Wild White Clover. 



[dec, 



fieldes of the lowe countries." It is evident from the descrip- 

 tion which follows that this was cultivated red clover. 



In Dossie's Memoirs of Agriculture, Vol. I., p. 365 

 (1768), a writer suggests that "there is a perennial sort of 

 red clover, that grows commonly enough on many of our 

 meadows, which would be extremely well worth cultivating.' 4 

 He found that the ordinary broad-leaved clover "lasts but a 

 year or two." From the foregoing it is evident that both 

 white clover and red clover had been cultivated in Holland 

 and Flanders before their introduction to England, probably 

 for a very considerable time. There can be no doubt that 

 the longer these clovers have been cultivated from their 

 original natural condition, the more they have developed 

 "early maturity" and greater vigour in their earlier stages, 

 but, at the same time, they have gradually lost their hardiness 

 and perennial character. From Blyth's account of the growth 

 of red clover in England in the seventeenth century, it 

 appears that at that period of its history its term of growth 

 was three years, and it seems quite probable that it has since 

 then gradually become a shorter-lived plant, as it usually does 

 not now last so long. 



A further difficulty with red clover as now grown, in 

 common with all cultivated leguminous crops, is that land 

 soon becomes "sick " of these crops when they are grown in 

 succession or too frequently. An interesting question that 

 arises is, Does land become "sick " of the wild or native forms 

 of clovers and allied plants ? Gorse, a leguminous plant, con- 

 tinues to grow year after year in its natural habitats without 

 any apparent tendency to gorse sickness. The leguminous 

 plants, indigenous to districts, evidently continue to grow 

 year after year, with about the same vigour and in the same 

 numbers. Favourite habitats of the leguminous plants, like 

 the Great Orme at Llandudno (on limestone), apparently con- 

 tinue to grow these plants for centuries. Much evidence is 

 accumulating, too, that the continued use of basic slag and 

 other manures which encourage white clover and other 

 natural leguminous herbage, will keep these plants growing 

 healthily for long periods of years. All this indicates that a 

 return to native or wild forms of white and red clovers may 

 have excellent results on clover-sick land. 



